A shepherd from the Witney space in Oxfordshire has pleaded responsible to 13 animal welfare and farming requirements offences, together with offences regarding the disposal of lifeless sheep in a muck heap.

Jonathon Simpson (38) – who trades as Jon’s Shepherding of Hunters Shut Farm, Middletown, Hailey, close to Witney – pleaded responsible to the offences at Oxford Magistrates Courtroom following a prosecution introduced by Oxfordshire County Council’s buying and selling requirements workforce.

The offences occurred between 2017 and 2022.

Simpson was sentenced to a 12 month group order, together with completion of a 15 day rehabilitation requirement.

He was additionally ordered to pay £2,000 in direction of the prosecution’s prices, in addition to already paying hundreds of kilos for the removing of the muck heap and animal by-products.

Oxford Magistrates Courtroom heard that Simpson had did not adjust to the restrictions on animal by-products, by disposing of numerous lifeless sheep by burying them in a muck heap to rot and decay on land in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council mentioned Simpson additionally did not maintain satisfactory information that included a “failure to maintain an updated register of animals, a failure to file animal actions and a failure to take care of a file of veterinary medicines, detailing after they had been bought, administered, or disposed of”.

He additionally moved livestock with out being an authorised and competent transporter.

Oxfordshire County Council’s head of buying and selling requirements, Jody Kerman, mentioned: “We absolutely help our farming group and all those that work in it. The overwhelming majority work to the best requirements.

“Those that search to bypass the principles not solely put the integrity of the meals chain in danger but in addition achieve an unfair benefit over hardworking farmers.”

Kerman mentioned animal welfare laws is “there for an excellent purpose” and its goal is to regulate illness, shield animals and make sure the security of the broader meals chain.

“These offences put all that in danger. The dearth of processes Simpson had in place risked the unfold of illness, whereas additionally hindering traceability and makes an attempt to include any such outbreak.

“As probably the most rural county within the southeast of England, an uncontrolled animal illness outbreak would have a massively damaging affect on peoples’ lives and on our native economic system,” Kerman added.